Can such a one be a fit mate for Catharine Glover? And yet
report says they are soon to be united."
The Fair Maid of Perth's complexion changed from red to pale, and
from pale to red, as she hastily replied: "I think not of him;
though it is true some courtesies have passed betwixt us of late,
both as he is my father's friend and as being according to the
custom of the time, my Valentine."
"Your Valentine, my child!" said Father Clement. "And can your
modesty and prudence have trifled so much with the delicacy of your
sex as to place yourself in such a relation to such a man as this
artificer? Think you that this Valentine, a godly saint and Christian
bishop, as he is said to have been, ever countenanced a silly and
unseemly custom, more likely to have originated in the heathen
worship of Flora or Venus, when mortals gave the names of deities
to their passions; and studied to excite instead of restraining
them?"
"Father," said Catharine, in a tone of more displeasure than she had
ever before assumed to the Carthusian, "I know not upon what ground
you tax me thus severely for complying with a general practice,
authorised by universal custom and sanctioned by my father's
authority. I cannot feel it kind that you put such misconstruction
upon me."
"Forgive me, daughter," answered the priest, mildly, "if I have
given you offence. But this Henry Gow, or Smith, is a forward,
licentious man, to whom you cannot allow any uncommon degree
of intimacy and encouragement, without exposing yourself to worse
misconstruction--unless, indeed, it be your purpose to wed him,
and that very shortly.
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